In most laundry operations in the United States, active chlorine compounds are used for bleaching. These are objectionable to many people because of their odor and their effect on many dyestuffs. Peroxygen compounds have been used in their place in some cases. In Europe, where laundering is generally carried out at 100.degree.C, peroxygen compounds have replaced active chlorine compounds to a very large extent. However, at temperatures below 80.degree.C, their activity falls off sharply; at the typical 50.degree.-60.degree.C laundering temperature used in the United States, their activity is very limited.
The bleaching activity of peroxygen compounds at 50.degree.-60.degree.C can be enhanced by the use of activators such as acetic anhydride, isopropenyl acetate and .beta.-propiolactone, by the use of certain carboxylic acid esters (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,905 issued Oct. 11, 1960) and a variety of other materials. Unfortunately, the known activators all have various drawbacks. For large-scale commercial laundering operations, where important considerations are cost effectiveness on the one hand, and absence of odor, skin-irritation, toxicity and formation of objectionable by-products on the other, the known activators have not been sufficiently good to engender, on a large scale, the desirable switch from active chlorine to active oxygen. A rather good review of the problems is reported in a three-part article by A. H. Gilbert in Detergent Age in June (p. 18 ff), July (p. 30 ff) and August (p. 26 ff) 1967.